Enforcement rare on statute aimed to give communities relief

WELLESLEY RESIDENT RONALD ALEXANDER seems to be exactly the sort of guy lawmakers had in mind when they included a harassment provision in the new Public Records Law. Alexander has filed more than 200 public records requests with Wellesley since 2013. He has filed 162 requests with the school department and school committee, 40 with(...)

IT’S EASY TO take ordinary conveniences like making a telephone call for granted. Advances in technology have made communication cheaper and higher quality than ever before. But one group has been excluded from enjoying the benefits of the falling cost of this modern amenity: inmates. For years, inmates and their families across the nation have(...)

Problem affects women most due to lower earnings, longer life

MASSACHUSETTS MAY HAVE come out on top in a recent US News & World Report ranking of states, but it’s a different story when it comes to economic security for senior citizens here. On a measure of the ability of single older residents to pay for basic needs, Massachusetts ranks as the second-worst state in(...)

For state government, it’s tough to say no

IN THIS ISSUE OF CommonWealth, we by happenstance ended up with three features that take an in-depth look at three forms of government intervention in the state economy. All of them are well-meaning and designed to create jobs and spur the state’s economy to greater heights. But the stories also demonstrate the limitations of government(...)

State treasurer holds checks for eminent domain

THERE’S ANOTHER UNCLAIMED money fund in the state treasurer’s office that most people have never heard of. Unlike the traditional abandoned property fund, which consists of money left behind by people in bank accounts, lapsed insurance policies, and safe deposit boxes, this other fund is filled with unclaimed checks from eminent domain land-takings by the(...)

PREP SCHOOL CLAIM SPECIOUS While I applaud Michael Jonas’s commitment to presenting all sides of the ongoing debate that surrounds the operation and performance of Massachusetts’s public vocational- technical high schools, I must respond to some of the opinions shared in the article (“Voc-tech tension,” Spring 2017). The idea that the Commonwealth’s public vocational schools(...)